ChandraLa Sala Rossa, Montreal QC, September 23

Post-punk pioneer Chandra showed up on stage with a band largely made up of young Toronto musicians and proceeded to perform a number of off-kilter, confrontational pop songs she released 36 years ago. They still hold up.

In 1980, Chandra was a 12 year-old child in NYC who exhibited a precocious predilection for writing cool songs. She released them herself at the time, on the Transportation EP, and showed them off here right away. Her kinship with Devo and Talking Heads was apparent on "Get it Out of Your System" and "Stranger" respectively, while the repetitive menace within "Concentration" recalled Joy Division.

The performance was enhanced by the simple flourish of an ensemble all dressed in black with Chandra in the middle, stoically yet insistently commanding our gaze.